Chinese Fried Rice recipe

I always wondered why the fried rice sold at chinese restaurants always looks like it is glistened gold with all that eggy-goodness while the ones I made at home are not.

Well, I came across the answer in the most unexpected manner.

I was watching a really cliché Taiwanese drama about an aspiring young chef who was only good at making 1 kind of food.

Make a guess? Yea, fried rice!

Although the show was crap, it clearly demonstrated how fried rice should be cooked in a chinese-restaurant style.

In order to attain that golden sheen, lots of oil and egg has to be included… so one thing for sure, this dish is not meant for health-conscious people!

Anyway, here goes –

Good fried rice will have eggy-goodness on each and every grain of rice!

Chinese Fried Rice (Yields 2 servings)

Ingredients

Rice – 1 cup, cooked, cooled and left overnight

Vegetable oil – 5 tbsp

Eggs – 3, beaten

Minced garlic – 1 tbsp

Prawns – 5 medium, peeled and devined

Ham – 2 pieces, sliced

‘Lap Cheong’ Chinese waxed sausages – 1 piece, sliced (Optional)

Salt – 1 tbsp

Green chives – 2 stalks

Dash of pepper

Directions

1. Combine salt and pepper to beaten eggs.

2. Stir half of the beaten eggs mixture onto rice. Make sure rice is covered with eggs mixture. Leave the rest of the mixture for scrambling later.

3. Heat oil on wok, add garlic once oil is hot. Stir fry til fragrant. *Note: having less oil will result in a dryer and less appealing rice… I only added 4 tbsp of oil as I couldn’t overcome my guilty conscious :p

4. Add in prawns, ham and wax sausages and cook til prawns have turned pink and the rest have browned. Set aside.

5. Scramble the rest of the egg mixture in the wok for 15 seconds. Add the rice and continue to stir fry until rice is completely coated with eggs and has turned golden.

6. Stir in the prawns, ham and sausages until combined. Add chives and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute.

7. Serve immediately.

The good thing about fried rice is that it is very flexible. I did not manage to finish all the rice, so i made myself a bento for lunch the next day, adding in some kimchi and pork loin asparagus as my side dish!